Caroline, while I'm not sure if it is the politest thing to say, when commemorating the death of another fine thespian, I was also very saddened to learn of John Spencer's death. He was such an amazing actor and will be incredibly missed.

I also enjoyed Vincent Schiavelli's work on Buffy, but, unfortunately, don't seem to recall him in any other performances. Regardless, this is very sad news and he will be missed.

Very sad, esp. coming after John Spencer -- two very fine character actors who's faces were far better known than they're names.

The article didn't mention it, but I think that at one time he was married to another underrated/underknown character actor, Alyce Beasley, who played Cybil Shepard's assistant on "Moonlighting." I knew some p.a.s on the show at the time, and they had nothing but nice things to say about both Alyce and Vincent. My sympaties to all.

In any case, I think by favorite Vincent S. performance was as the knowlegeably evil PhD. of death, Dr. Kaufman, in "Tomorrow Never Dies"...I sort of wish Bond hadn't killed him so quickly so we could see more of him (I also wished that the rest of the movie had been as great as that scene!)

I was sad to hear of his passing, once I realized he was the fellow from "Moonlighting" and "Taxi". I watched both of those shows fairly regularly when they came out, and I loved his performances in both. Though his roles in "Taxi" were small, they were quite memorable ("nik-nik with Latka" LOL...!).

bobster, you are correct that he was married to Alyce Beasley. And one role I remember that hasn't been mentioned is his part as the subway ghost who teaches Patrick Swayze's character how to kick a can, etc., in Ghost. Not my favorite film, but his was a memorable performance within it.

And last week I was so shocked about John Spencer's death as well. Both these guys were young.

I missed the first of last night's West Wing repeat, but it was the first aired since Spencer's death. Did NBC say anything at the beginning in memory of Spencer? The episode that was shown was certainly a Spencer-centric one.

The sad thing is that he was the perfect guy to give the speech about vengance...he made it very believable for me. But it seems that he accomplished a great deal in his life (at least filmwise)...that's something to be proud of.

Not just filmwise, in that, as mentioned in the pasing in the article, he was also apparently a fine Italian cook and was an awardwinning author of cookbooks and food writing. (He did a very interesting interview with Terry Gross a few years back about it, I'm guessing they'll be repeating it soon on "Fresh Air.") According to IMDB, he also has children with both Alyce Beasley and his surviving wife.

Wow, he was only 57? That's too bad. I too know him first from Taxi (though I only saw the show in reruns), like nina, and was surprised to see him show up on Buffy. Those are the only two things I know him for, but I thought he was great in each of those admittedly minor roles.

And yeah, like many others, I'm a long-long-time reader/lurker and I managed to register on Christmas Eve, for which I'm thankful, and happy to finally get to interact with all of you. Anyway, carry on.